Flat Belly Scam

Next to Lindsay Lohan’s naked photos, the hottest thing on the Internet these days is the Flat Belly Diet. And while Lindsay Lohan may have a flat belly, she surely didn’t get it from the Flat Belly Diet, which is just the latest in a long line of weight loss scams. It’s not that the program they recommend is dangerous or bad, it’s just that it’s basically a marketing gimmick designed to slim down your wallet first and your abdomen second.

Here are the reasons I call the Flat Belly Diet a scam:

• The book costs $31.95! That’s simply outrageous.
• The book is just the first part of the program, to which you must subscribe. I’m not sure of the exact cost but it’s around $15 a month.
• There is a huge marketing effort behind the book including a slick website and countless interviews and TV appearances by the authors.
• One of the authors claimed on Rachel Ray that “We found the cure for belly fat! MUFAs are the antidote to belly fat.” More on MUFAs later, but you should always be skeptical when someone says they’ve found the cure or the antidote for anything. If is sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
• They emphasize that you don’t have to exercise (“Not a single crunch”). On Rachel Ray one of the authors said: “Exercise is not a mandatory part of the Flat Belly Diet. You will see results if you just follow the food portion of the diet.” But, in the book, they actually recommend “optional” (i.e., not mandatory) exercise such as 25 minutes of brisk walking, or a strength training program. This is just a classic bait and switch! NO EXERCISE NECESSARY (but highly recommended). Always beware of the fine print!
• The basic diet is one of calorie restriction. You are supposed to eat four meals a day each consisting of 400 calories. That’s 1,600 calories a day. Of course you’re going to lose weight if you’ve been eating 2,000, 2,500 or more calories a day. There’s nothing new to that. So this is a basic calorie counting diet, in which you have to count every calorie for every meal forever. Good luck with that.